


there and back again

by Kirschli_Kuchen



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Aftercare, F/F, GTA AU, Implied/Referenced Torture, Pining, female AU, wouldn't be a gta au if there was no torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 20:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4317996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirschli_Kuchen/pseuds/Kirschli_Kuchen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan had been out of that life.<br/>That is until Arin came along with a guy in her trunk and enough emotional baggage to air for both of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	there and back again

She hadn't been in the room for years.

Dan has a set of sharp knives wrapped in cloth in one hand and the other on the doorknob. Arin is at her back, warm and vaguely familiar even after all those years she hadn't been there. Dan takes a long drawn out breath to steel herself.

She opens the door. It's dusty and grimy and smells overpoweringly like fresh blood. There's some guy strapped to the ancient armchair they'd brought together when they'd first gotten the place. Dan has to stop in the doorway. Arin takes the bundle of knives from her walks over to the wooden table tucked into the corner by the far wall to set them down.

Dan focuses on Arin to take her mind off the situation. She looks... good. Disappointingly. Dan had pictured her to look more unkempt. Kind of like more unhappy without Dan in her life. But no. She looks better than when she'd left.

Over the years Dan's had some of her old friends over. Some of which had stayed in that life. That didn't want or couldn't get out. She didn't begrudge them.

Berry normally brought her some homemade jam and news of all her old acquaintances that never came by. Brian also occasionally popped up out of the underbrush to tell her this or that.

So she's heard enough about Arin. About how she got a husband around a year after their fallout. How they broke up a couple of years later because it just didn't work out that way. About how Arin and Suzy stayed good friends anyways. Still working together and going out for the occasional friendly date. (And Dan isn't bitter about that fact. Not at all.)

Arin sets the bundle down with a faintly metallic clank and snaps Dan out of her funk.

The guy's still squirming on the chair. Slow and muted as if he's just waking up. Like maybe he'd been hit with a blunt object or a drug some hours ago. She can't really tell with the bag over his head but by the smell she'd wager head trauma.

Arin gestures her over quietly to show her the rest of the equipment on the table. Dan walks over to her side.

It's fairly standard fare for a session. The knives she's brought, some needles and syringes filled with comprehensively labeled fluids, a car battery, some cables, and a blunt bone saw.

She feels sick in the back of her throat.

Arin softly puts her hand on Dan's arm and looks at her in question. Dan jumps at the touch and darts her eyes up to Arin's face.

Mistake. Abort abort abort.

But Arin's always had the prettiest eyes. She'd gotten lost in them on more than one occasion and is still so fucking weak to them.

Arin leans over close to her ear, “You okay, dude?” she says in the quietest voice and Dan can do nothing but nod frantically while she moves back out of Arin's space as fast as she can.

Arin smiles at her then looks back down again to open up the cloth bundle and lay out the knifes as quietly as she can.

“Hello, is someone there?” the guy says in a small and terrified voice and Dan jumps. Arin's smile stretches into a grin.

She selects a knife with flourish and holds it out to Dan like an offering. 'Show me what you've got' Arin tells her with her eyes and Dan's helpless against her. She takes the knife and slowly turns to the guy.

He's squirming in earnest now as she walks slowly and quietly over to him.

“Seriously, is there someone here?” the guy's shaking and tugging at the rope holding him in place. She leans over at his side and gently blows at his ear. He shrieks and jumps. Dan rubs her own ringing ear. Well that wasn't really worth it.

She starts easy and settles in for the slow burn. A caress with the blunt side of the knife here and there. Just light enough to make the guy antsy but not to really tangibly alarm him. She can feel Arin's regard burning a hole in the back of her head and it eggs her on something fierce. Okay so she won't take her time then.

Let the second movement begin.

  
  


It's hours after that Arin calls a stop with a soft hand on her arm. Dan dizzily snaps out of it. She'd forgotten how lost she got in the moment of someone else's pain.

“Hey I got you,” Arin tells her quietly while the guy on the chair makes a choked and limp sound.

She lets Arin lead her out of the room and into the small bathroom next door. Dan's fallen into an unprotesting stupor. She's wont to after.

“You did so good for me baby,” Arin whispers into her hair while she deposits her on the closed toilet seat. She pulls Dan's shirt over her head and shimmies her out of her jeans. Then she pulls out a washcloth, wets it, soaps it up, and sets to work.

“So good to me, Danny,” she says as she cleans the blood off Dan's hands. She continues to quietly praise her as she washes out the cloth and cleans her arms, neck and face.

“Looked so fucking stunning,” she murmurs into Dan's collarbone and brushes her lips over it lightly. She backs off fast enough that Dan doesn't even really register the gesture.

Dan comes back to herself in increments. The whispered words from Arin always helped and they still haven't lost any of their magic.

When she finally feels mostly in her skin again she looks up at Arin who's looking back at her with an adoring smile.

“Welcome back, Danny,” she says softly and brushes some of Dan's wild hair back behind her ear.

“Hey,” Dan says back just as quietly and with a bit of a crick in her voice. She hadn't really spoken in the last couple of hours and it shows.

Arin crowds forward right into Dan's space and gently leans their foreheads together, “Thank you for doing this for me,” she says with a twinkle in her eye that Dan can't really see from her vantage point but is sure is there.

They breathe each other's air for a long moment and Dan hears the unspoken, 'Thank you for not running from me' clear enough in how Arin's hand comes up to rest on Dan's cheek.

Dan exhales slowly and moves back out of Arin's space but doesn't shake off her hand.

“Well you know me,” she says with a wry, self-disparaging grin, “Never could turn down someone in need.”

She doesn't say, 'Never could turn _you_ down'.

Arin's eyes turn sharp. Her hand slides down to the back of Dan's neck and her fingers tangle briefly in her hair.

“That's not a bad thing,” Arin says and tugs gently at her hair.

“It's not good either,” Dan retorts. Arin sighs and frees her hand to pull Dan into a loose hug.


End file.
